


Treatise on the Sexual Mores and Preferences of Neal Caffrey

by laleia



Category: White Collar
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-12
Updated: 2010-04-12
Packaged: 2017-10-08 21:32:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laleia/pseuds/laleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal has lots of sex.</p><p>(In the end it always comes back to Kate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treatise on the Sexual Mores and Preferences of Neal Caffrey

Sometimes, when he allowed the dimly-lit room to fool him, he could pretend that she was Kate. Only for a few moments at a time. Maybe it would be the way her toes curled as she shuddered with pleasure, or the way her silky hair felt against his skin, or the hitch in her throat as he pushed her to climax and stopped at the brink. Whatever it was, for one blissful moment he could pretend it was Kate he was fucking raw, it was Kate he was nudging to orgasm, it was Kate he had wrapped around his waist.

Sometimes, it disappointed him during the day when he saw hair that was a shade too dark or heard a throaty chuckle that was just a tad too deep. Elizabeth's carriage was always more self-assured than Kate's had ever been, her perfume more floral, and the click of her heels more purposeful. It was only at night when her body arched in pleasure and the room smelled only of sex and the darkness forgave the differences that Neal could pretend.

\--

With Peter, he never pretended. Peter wasn't a fantasy, he was an escape. He was all hard muscle and callused hands, as far from Kate's soft curves and delicate hands as Neal could get. Where Kate kissed and caressed and nipped and tongued, Peter pushed and shoved and tugged and pressed. Where Kate surrendered herself with a sigh to orgasm, Peter was always in control even when he was coming.

With Peter, sex was about being grounded in reality, a visceral reminder that Kate was who knew where. Sex with Peter was a push and pull for dominance that Neal invariably ceded, allowing himself to be pushed back, relinquishing control. It wasn't about soft cushions to lean on or silky sheets sleek against his skin, but about the cool hardwood floor against his knees and the coarse bargain-basement fabric against his cheek, the discomfort that rooted him in the harshness of the real world.

\--

When he finds Kate again, the kiss they share is desperate and needy. He tangles his fingers in her hair (_not as silky as he remembers, must have switched conditioner_), wraps his other arm around her waist (_bonier than before, she must not have eaten well in her stress_), and holds on as if she were a wisp of a figment that could blow away at any minute.

When they (eventually) fall into bed again, he finds that he has to re-learn quite a lot. He has changed, and she has changed, and her gasps sound higher than he is used to after Elizabeth, and her frame is more fragile than he is used to after Peter. Her hands feel strange against his chest, and his arm is pinned awkwardly against the bed. 

It isn't until her fingers tighten around his arms in a familiar deathgrip, until his body remembers the rhythm to take, until she throws back her head as she climaxes with a familiar gasp, that he thinks things might be alright after all. He spends fifteen minutes devoted to re-learning her breasts, and she spends as long seeing if he's still as sensitive to a whisper-light breath against the nape of his neck. They spends hours talking as they lie among the sticky sheets, until their hearts know each other as well as their bodies now do.

And for the first time in a long time, Neal doesn't escape the present, nor force himself to stay in it. For the first time, he lets himself think of the future.

**Author's Note:**

> And then they had a massive orgy with funtimes all around.
> 
> It's worth noting that I did not intend for this to sound Neal/Kate OTP. I don't even ship Neal/Kate, this just ... ended up being narratively convenient.


End file.
